Predatory government?

The New Voices in Philanthropy blog recently posted a piece about governments' increase in user fees as a social justice issue (scroll down to find blog post).  The author argues that the increased user fees are "predatory government" practices because of their regressive nature (in both % of total income and the types of services taxed).  Interestingly he also proposes increased user fees as an area where philanthropies could potentially have a social justice impact.  

He poses two questions to readers:

1. What response is philanthropy making (currently, we’re not aware of much direct response)?

2. How can/should philanthropy respond (and is this an area where philanthropy should offer a response at all)?

What do you all think?